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Before closing the book on the Battle of Ontario for another spring, Chris Neil delivered one last blow to the arch-rival Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Senators winger told the Sun Monday he was surprised Toronto’s Mikhail Grabovski wanted to drop the gloves Saturday at Scotiabank Place. Neil wasn’t pleased with the tactics used by the Leafs winger.

“I wasn’t shocked it was from behind right off the get-go,” said Neil with a smile after a skate in preparation for Tuesday’s visit by the New Jersey Devils.

Many were surprised to see Neil drop the gloves with Grabovski. It the first NHL fight for the 28-year-old Leaf, who stepped into a shoving match Neil was having with Carter Ashton.

“Kudos to (Grabovski). He comes in and tries to fight. I’d love to fight him face-to-face,” said Neil. “He still dropped his gloves and he came in and did his thing.

“I knew (if we were) the second fight, I was going to get kicked out of that game. I was trying ... I didn’t want to fight him. I was just trying to be patient. After you take three punches in the face, that’s when I decided to drop the gloves and start going at it.”

The trouble started at 13:23 of the second when Nick Foligno and Luke Schenn fought. With most players squaring off, Neil was jostling with Ashton, when Grabovski came in with his fists flying.

“It was just the way the play happened. I shoved Ashton just to get him out of the way so I could watch the (Foligno and Schenn) fight. I couldn’t see over (Ashton),” said Neil.

“I don’t know if (Grabovski) took exception to that or what happened. He comes flying in after and grabs me from behind. His gloves are off. He’s trying to throw. I’m looking at the referee to see if he’s calling anything. Once it seemed like he wasn’t calling anything, I have to stick up for myself.”

You can be certain if Neil planned to fight anybody, it would have been Dion Phaneuf or Jay Rosehill. Going toe-to-toe with Grabovski wasn’t on the radar screen.

“It wasn’t like I was looking to go out and fight Grabovski,” said Neil. “He came after me. I felt like a skilled player out there. They were shadowing me on the forecheck and on the power play. It’s the first time in my career I think I’ve had a shadow.”

Neil said the decision to scrap with Grabovski had nothing to do with the fact Clarke MacArthur had fought blueliner Sergei Gonchar earlier in the game. Gonchar confirmed it was his first bout since Nov. 27, 1998 vs. Guy Carbonneau.

Neil wasn’t trying to get any payback.

“That thought never even crossed my mind,” he said.

Neil said the fights bode well for next year.

“The energy was flying out there and you get some momentum,” said Neil. “Our team was pretty pumped up to see Gonch go out and drop the gloves. You see a guy like that step up and it brings more energy to the building.”